Google Social Network, Google+ Real-Life Sharing

Undoubtedly, the “buzz” of the moment is the announcement of the Google+ project, probably one of Google’s most ambitious plan to get into the “wave” of social networking. Being an issue that could generate a very big impact in the near future, I obviously, started to scour to web about the subject matter and already found many “people” giving opinions about the project. Needless to say that some says it will be a “flop”, some saying it will “kill” FaceBook, some already comparing Twitter versus Google, and some goes as far as saying that it will be no where close to being a FaceBook competitor. As for Twitter, I think they have their own place, so if I were you, I would continue on using Twitter :). Here’s a suggestion on how to get Twitter followers, easier.

Anyway, so much for what people are saying. My take on this is that it is simply just too early too say anything about it, so I’ll hold on to any “predictions” for the time being, and in case you have not heard about it (yet), here are the best articles, I found so far, which you can read to find out more about the Google+ project.

Among the most basic of human needs is the need to connect with others. With a smile, a laugh, a whisper or a cheer, we connect with others every single day.
Today, the connections between people increasingly happen online. Yet the subtlety and substance of real-world interactions are lost in the rigidness of our online tools.
In this basic, human way, online sharing is awkward. Even broken. And we aim to fix it.
We’d like to bring the nuance and richness of real-life sharing to software. We want to make Google better by including you, your relationships, and your interests. And so begins the Google+ project…

A quick look:

How Do you Get In?

Do you all remember about “wave”? Well, if you don’t, the process for being able to use the service was that you had to have an invite from someone who had an account. So much so, that there were people holding all kinds of different contests, to give Wave invitations away. Anyway, it is rumored that Google+ project will also be “by invitation” only so we’ll just have to wait confirmation for that.

Take The Tour

If you want to have some impressions on how the interface would work and some of its features, I suggest you head over to their demo site, and while you are there, click on the “join project” to submit your email to get in line. Who knows, you may get lucky and receive an invite right away.

On the tour page, you will be able to see the project in “action” as to how Google+ will work (more or less). You can test drive “circles”, “sparks”, “hangouts” and “huddle”. These for now, are the major “pillars” of the project and at first glance, it seems to be “less” noisy that that of its peers.

Creating Your “Circle Of Trust”

Create “Spark” – Share things you care about and of the same interest

“Hangout” – Everyone in the same conversation, hangout with friends, business partners, collaboration groups, etc.

And much more. Just take the tour (if interested), to find out more..

That’s it! Whether or not, Google+ will finally be the next big thing from Google, remains to be seen. They do have the ingredients for that. I can see “other” services eventually being integrated in there somehow.. They have so many of them, like gmail, google docs, apps, and a lot of other “shareable” services, mobile and not, that could allow Google to finally have an “all-in-one” solution.

43 thoughts on “Google Social Network, Google+ Real-Life Sharing”

If there are 2 separate pages about hiking shoes and both have 10 likes, 10 retweets and 10 +1’s, which of the page is more relevant?
The whole like and +1 issue is too black and white for me, life usually has a lot of grey tones.

Hi Andreas. That’s a good question and in this case, I will probably have to check them both to make that assessment 🙂 I hear you loud and clear and all these “social stuff” is just sometimes going overboard. Problem is, we are hooked to it, one way or another. Can’t beat them, join them 🙂 Thanks for stopping by. Really appreciate it

I can’t wait to get in on this! I’d love to see an alternative to Facebook that’s really meaningful. I was a fan of Buzz and I saw a great deal of benefit from it. Facebook annoys me so much that I recorded a rant video earlier today. 🙂 Since I was just getting stuff off my chest and it wasn’t a tutorial I didn’t upload it to YouTube but ironically I posted it on Facebook 🙂
Anyway, I’m a big fan of Google and I wish them the best with this latest project, thanks for the sign-up link. I’ll be waiting patiently for it to show up!

Hi Ileane. Funny that when I was writing about this, I was “almost” certain that you were one that will be eager to give this project a go. Like you, I am not (and probably will never be), an avid FaceBook user and therefore also looking forward to get in there to see how it goes.

One of the slots for my “circle of trust” is already taken, of course by you. Just waiting to put it in there 🙂

I am a big fan of Google, and I am after anything from Google. I will surely give it a try. Just like Ileane, I am so very annoyed by Facebook. It is a lot of pain than benefit and I am hanging on to it just for my blog (I know that is a selfish statement to make).

Hi Jane. You are not alone about being annoyed by FB. I really don’t think that it is a selfish move, because quite frankly, you are being honest about it, in comparison to all those people that “apparently” reap benefits from it. I unfortunately use it for almost the same purpose and prefer to communicate via Twitter which is simpler. Despite this, Twitter obviously has limitations. If G+ could fill the void between being “less” noisy and a notch above Twitter’s simplicity, maybe it could be a good solution. Let’s see how this goes.. I hope it works

Okay , Here I go , First , I am bored at facebook , it’s been years and it haven’t changed the design , nor provided a way for users to customize their design , so +1 for google 😉 and next is if google make a way so that we can use gmail, doc , apps , picasa and + together then there is no way for facebook to beat google+. But if google is going to go about it like “wave” using invitation then I wont be using it at all.

Hi Sue. I hear you 🙂 Would it not be nice if somehow Google manages to put everything in one “basket”, lol. Sort of iGoogle with a Plus.. We’ll see what will happen. As for the “similarity” with the way they rolled out wave, I think, for some reason, this is the tactic they will “continue” to use, despite many not agreeing to it too much..

Your right it is too early to tell yet since it is sort of beta or invite only. As much as I do not like google’s grip on the world I do not like facebook that much either. I do not expect google to kill facebook with this one. Would I like to see them take a bite out of facebook? Sure! But, at the same time I do not want to see google any bigger than they already are. I would like to see more sites competing with google. They are a giant that keeps growing. The only reason I would like to see them take a bite into facebook is that I am tired of hearing about facebook and twitter all the time. It would be nice to see something else mentioned, even if it happens to be google.

Facebook is so annoying. I thought I was the only one. If anyone can give them a little competition…google would be one to do it.

Hi Ray. You got a point about Google being dominant in so many ways that it could be scary. But let’s face it.. They help, they provide tools and services that are great. They even help us to make money… Anyway, you probably figured out that I am a fan 🙂 Thanks for sharing your thoughts. All the best

I’m not really sure about this project. Google has done so many things in the past that haven’t worked that I’m goingo to be careful on this. Facebook is a giant too, so we’ll have to wait for the facebook response.

Hi Mario. To be honest with you, I really don’t care about the FB response (which I am sure will occur). Now that I am in finally (wooot), my first impression is that the interface is clean and relatively easy to use. Still, too early to tell but for what I can see so far, I +1 it 🙂

That’s one thing I like about Google: The clean and easy to use interface in everything they do.
I’m not a FB fan (maybe I’m a antosocial human being, hehe). If google offers a platform where you can share in a better way with your true friends, I’m in.

Hi Ana. I agree with you. I am also not sure about taking away FB users but my thoughts is that eventually one will play differently from each other. For example, if Google manages to put its main services in there, I will probably use it a lot more than FB, which currently and perhaps sadly, I do not use that much. Anyway, like you said, perhaps a nice addition to our already “overloaded” social arsenal 🙂

Hi Ron. I am a bit surprised about why you are saying that it is not user friendly. I just got my access this morning and already I have a good feeling about it. I am not tech savvy nor a social guru, but for the looks of it, it is actually very easy to use. If you are familiar with gmail and google maps for example, Google+ is a breeze 🙂 Give it a try and let me know if you change your mind…

I am playing it and using it around. Yes for me, its a good one and easy to use, but I think, for most of the peeps out there, who are use into using and logging into Facebook. Google + might not get their attention IMHO. Although its too early for me to say that. Anyway, its just my own opinion. =)

First let me say thanks for bringing this to my notice. Frankly, I’m not too keen about these social stuff because of what they have turned into. However, with this coming from Google I hope to get in and see what comes out of it.

Hi! I agree with you. Social media has a bit of too much noise and one can not “control” the flow of information going through them. I just started to use Google+ this morning and one of the things I like is that you can filter your stream based on your interest and “closed groups”. This way, you don’t have everyone seeing what you want to share. I also think that it is a potential candidate for using it for business purposes, although I am in the very early stages of geeting a grasp of G+. like it so far though..

Thanks for the intro, DiTesco. I have an invite, but they won’t let me in yet, as they seem to be doing it in stages. Google + has some appealing features, but I’m not writing Facebook off yet, either.

Hi Sharon. Not sure why they are not letting you in yet, but I am sure it is just a matter of time, or perhaps there are just too many people trying to get in at the same time. This also happened to me and I decided to get in later in the evening, where apparently there was less traffic. It worked… Anyway, once you are in, let me know so I can “circle” you 🙂

I am awaiting an invite to come through from a blogging buddy then I’ll see how user friendly it is lol Never been a big fan of FB so will see if I am of this once I give it a try.

There’s sure a big buzz going on at the moment and like you say in the post; those who already give it a fail before it gets going and others who want it to succeed. We will all have to be patient and wait and see.

Hi Patricia. What, you have no invite yet? That is outrageous, lol. just kidding Patricia. Shoot me an email and I will make sure you get that invite right away. Like you, I am not really an avid FB fan, but G+ is getting me going.. Like it so far

Well it’s complicated to say if it will outrank Facebook, and only because the momentum Facebook has. I’m not a big fan of social networks, but Google brings some cool features that Facebook doesn’t have.

Using Social Circles you can share different pictures and information with different circles of friends. And this is better. I don’t want to share every information with all the people I know. You don’t do that in the real life either.

Beside that, I also think Google will provide more security and privacy to his users.

I heard the same rumor Ricardus and it makes sense, because MS recently purchased Skype and they also have a high stakes on FB. I think this might be FB next weapon to counter on G+ “hangout” feature. In will be a nice addition though and great fro Skype to extend its reach. We’ll see

Google’s new launched social networking sites will definitely rock the market. It will give huge competition to Facebook.I heard that Facebook going to launch a service which allow user to do video chat with help of skype on Facebook.Dying to see that….

Well, google has been the number 1 search engine for a long time now and while many of its products are good, not many really made success, i still remember google buzz, google wave, etc. While google plus is an attempt to compete against facebook, it is undeniably true that they have an advantage simply because they own the search engine market and google plus will ties up with their search result but still, i have to wonder do they really have to compete against social sites? i mean, there’s already a plethora of social sites out there already, wouldn’t this simply just another google buzz? just a thought.